ArticleAge and ageing2023
The perceived control model of falling: developing a unified framework to understand and assess maladaptive fear of falling.
Article in Age and ageing, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Does concern about falling predict future falls in older adults? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Age and ageing · 2025Pooled it
- Is frailty associated with increased concerns about falling and activity restriction in community-dwelling older adults? A systematic review.The Journal of frailty & aging · 2025Pooled it
- Psychological and educational interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Association between dizziness and future falls and fall-related injuries in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Age and ageing · 2024Pooled it
- Reducing concerns about falling in older adults: evaluation of a multi-component intervention and the role of stress and inflammation markers - long-term effects of the FEARFALL randomized controlled trial.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Trial
- Assessing concerns about falling: a comparison of telephone-based and face-to-face FES-I interviews in older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Trial
- Personality traits and coping with fear of falling: An interpretive description study of older adults in Canada.Journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Characterization of physical health variables across fall risk appraisal groups: a cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Latent profiles of kinesiophobia and their associations with exercise self-efficacy, diabetes distress, and fall risk in older adults with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Perceived control over falling: a qualitative study of psychological aspects in older adults with fall concerns.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Tackling Anxiety- and Stress-Related Freezing of Gait in People With Parkinson's Disease (TACKLING-FOG): Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Experiences of Anxiety and Its Relationship to Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease: A Qualitative Study.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Falls in Functional Neurological Disorder: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Clinical Implications.European journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Prefrontal Cortical Asymmetry and Motor Slowing in Older Women: EEG Evidence That Fear of Falling Modulates Emotional Valence and Reaction Time.Psychogeriatrics : the official journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society · 2026Article
- Motor, Cognitive, Psychological, and Neural Predictors of Concern About Falling in Persons With Multiple Sclerosis.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2026Article
- Personality Traits and Their Association With Falls and Fall-Related Psychological Concerns in Adults Aged 50 and Older: A Scoping Review.Health science reports · 2026Review
- Links between central visual field loss and movement processing during walking.Gait & posture · 2026Article
- Heart rate variability to objectively measure fear of falling in post fall patients: a protocol study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Vision impairment and cognitive function in Chinese older adults with diabetes: multiple mediating effects of social participation and perceived control.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundfear of falling is common in older adults and can have a profound influence on a variety of behaviours that increase fall risk. However, fear of falling can also have potentially positive outcomes for certain individuals. Without progressing our understanding of mechanisms underlying these contrasting outcomes, it is difficult to clinically manage fear of falling.
methodsthis paper first summarises recent findings on the topic of fear of falling, balance and fall risk-including work highlighting the protective effects of fear. Specific focus is placed on describing how fear of falling influences perceptual, cognitive and motor process in ways that might either increase or reduce fall risk. Finally, it reports the development and validation of a new clinical tool that can be used to assess the maladaptive components of fear of falling.
resultswe present a new conceptual framework-the Perceived Control Model of Falling-that describes specific mechanisms through which fear of falling can influence fall risk. The key conceptual advance is the identification of perceived control over situations that threaten one's balance as the crucial factor mediating the relationship between fear and increased fall risk. The new 4-item scale that we develop-the Updated Perceived Control over Falling Scale (UP-COF)-is a valid and reliable tool to clinically assess perceived control.
conclusionthis new conceptualisation and tool (UP-COF) allows clinicians to identify individuals for whom fear of falling is likely to increase fall risk, and target specific underlying maladaptive processes such as low perceived control.
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